About us

An ASL Welcome

An introduction to the ASL-STEM Forum

The ASL-STEM Forum is part of a research venture at the
University of Washington
which seeks to remove a fundamental obstacle currently in the way of deaf scholars,
both students and professionals. Due to its relative youth and widely dispersed user
base, American Sign Language (ASL) has never developed standardized vocabulary for
the many terms that have arisen in advanced Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics (STEM) fields. This makes it hard for deaf students to learn in their
native language, and it makes communication between both deaf and hearing scientists
and engineers far more difficult.

As any intro linguistics student could tell you, language use and evolution cannot be
dictated by the few, no matter their expertise. This approach has failed time and again
throughout history, and, no doubt, this case will be no exception. Instead, languages
change because their users choose to change them.

This Forum is an attempt to connect you, all of the ASL users of North America, together
so that you can, of your own accord, introduce the necessary vocabulary to your language.
This will make it much easier for those in the Deaf community to pursue careers in technical
fields.

We currently have 1511 users, 8640 topics, and
3266 signs, with more being added all the time.